The Governing Law

The cancellation of a Power of Attorney is governed by the UAE Civil Transactions Law, Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025, in force from 1 June 2026. It repealed Federal Law No. 5 of 1985, which still governs Powers of Attorney issued before that date. The agency provisions sit at Articles 866 to 903. A Power of Attorney is, in legal terms, an instrument of agency (wakala), and the rules governing the agency relationship govern the document that creates it.Article 866 defines agency as a contract between the principal and the agent whereby the agent undertakes to perform a legal act in the name and on behalf of the principal. Article 868 sets the conditions of validity: the principal must have the right to dispose of the matter, the agent must be competent to carry it out, and the subject must be known and capable of being performed by proxy. Articles 869 to 871 distinguish general from special agency: an agency in general terms authorises only acts of administration, and any act beyond administration — a sale, a gift, a pledge, a settlement — requires a special agency naming the type of act.The notarisation procedure that gives the cancellation its formal effect is governed by Federal Decree-Law No. 20 of 2022 on the Profession of Notary Public, which replaced Federal Law No. 4 of 2013. The decree-law recognises both Public Notaries and Private Notaries and gives legal effect to electronic notarisation. Cabinet Resolution No. 16 of 2024 contains the implementing executive regulations.

The Right to Revoke (Article 898)

Article 898 is the operative provision on revocation. It reads (English rendering of the Arabic text):

“The principal may dismiss or restrict his agent whenever he wishes, unless a third party’s right is attached to the agency or it was issued for the benefit of the agent, in which case the principal may not terminate or restrict it without the consent of the beneficiary.”

The article does two things. It confers on the principal a right to dismiss or restrict the agent at will, without the agent’s consent and without cause. And it withholds that right where a third party’s right is attached to the agency or the agency was issued for the agent’s benefit, unless the beneficiary consents. Article 899 adds that a principal who dismisses the agent at an inappropriate time or without acceptable justification must compensate the agent for the resulting damage.

Notice is not a condition written into Article 898. Its importance comes from Article 144: where the agent and the person he contracts with are both unaware that the agency has ended, the contract’s effects accrue to the principal. That is why the rest of this site is about notification.

Automatic Termination (Article 897)

Article 897 provides that the agency ends on the death or loss of legal capacity of either the principal or the agent. No revocation deed is required for termination on these grounds; the termination is by operation of law. UAE law does not recognise a Lasting Power of Attorney equivalent that survives the principal’s loss of capacity. The death of the principal ends the authority of the agent, and the death of the agent ends the appointment.

Expiry by Term

Where the original Power of Attorney states a validity period, the document expires automatically on the stated date. No separate revocation procedure is required for an expired Power of Attorney, although notice to the agent and to relevant third parties may still be appropriate to remove practical reliance on the document.

Resignation by the Agent

The agent may also withdraw from the appointment. The procedural mechanism is similar to revocation by the principal: the agent executes a notarised notice of withdrawal, which is registered with the issuing notary and served on the principal. The legal effect is the termination of the agency from the agent’s side.

The Three Routes Compared

Revocation is the active termination by the principal; it requires a deed, notarisation, and notice. Automatic termination is termination by operation of law on death or incapacity; it requires no deed but typically requires evidentiary documentation to be acted upon by registrars and counterparties. Expiry is termination by the document’s own terms; it requires no further act but, where notice will prevent practical confusion, notice is advisable.

The Practical Implication

The legal authority to bring a Power of Attorney to an end is one question; the practical effectiveness of having done so is another. Article 144 is what makes that distinction matter: a contract concluded while the agent and the counterparty are both unaware of the revocation still binds the principal. The remainder of this site addresses the procedural and notification mechanisms that bridge the legal authority and the practical result.

Execution

Drafting and notarisation of cancellation deeds, including the registration steps that follow, are handled at poas.ae.